By Ijeoma UKAZU
Yearly, stakeholders including the United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF continues to advocate for the elimination of Female Genital Mutilation, FGM, from the Nigerian society.
This advocacy, UNICEF FGM Consultant for South West Nigeria, Olutayo Aderonke said is been carried out in local communities with the belief that the practice is a rite of passage into womanhood has called on those involved to do away with the blades and knives, and let the girl-child live.
To commemorate the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation, marked 6th February annually, Aderonke frowns at the practice said, mutilating girls can cause severe bleeding and problems urinating as well as complications in childbirth and increased risk of newborn deaths.
According to the World Health Organisation, WHO, FGM is a practice involving the partial or total removal of external female genitalia or other injuries to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons.
WHO said this practice is associated with some long-term risks which include; Infertility; menstrual complications; difficulties during childbirth among others.
The global health body further adds that for longer-term effects, the woman could encounter; chronic infections, cysts, and ulcers; painful scar tissue; problems affecting the bladder, uterus, and kidneys; sexual health issues; mental health issues; infertility; menstrual complications; difficulties during childbirth, and an increased risk of infant and maternal mortality.
Treatment of the health complications of FGM in 27 high prevalence countries, WHO estimates that it would cost 1.4 billion USD per year and is projected to rise to 2.3 billion USD by 2047 if no action is taken.
While the exact number of girls and women worldwide who have undergone FGM remains unknown, Globally, it is estimated that at least 200 million girls and women alive today have undergone some form of FGM.
The United Nations said, “If current trends continue, 15 million additional girls between ages 15 and 19 be subjected to it by 2030. Girls 14 and younger represent 44 million of those who have been cut, with the highest prevalence of FGM among this age in the Gambia at 56 percent, Mauritania at 54 percent, and Indonesia where around half of the girls aged 11 and younger have undergone the practice.
“Countries with the highest prevalence among girls and women aged 15 to 49 are Somalia 98 percent, Guinea 97 percent, and Djibouti 93 percent. FGM is mostly carried out on young girls sometime between infancy and age 15”
Nationally, 27 percent of Nigerian women between the ages of 15 and 49 were victims of FGM, as of 2012. In the last 30 years, the prevalence of the practice has decreased by half in some parts of Nigeria, a UNICEF report has said.
In many of the countries where FGM is performed, the report said, it is a deeply entrenched social norm rooted in gender inequality where violence against girls and women is socially acceptable.
UNICEF FGM Consultant, Aderonke said Nigeria can end cutting girls if all stakeholders involve ensures adequate investment in the course, adding that this forms the 2022 theme: “Accelerating Investment to End FGM” — calling for support for programmes to provide services and response for those affected and those at risk; in developing and enforcing laws, and fortifying institutional capacity to eliminate the practice.
Speaking with The Abuja Inquirer in an interview in Lagos, the expert said “This year, over 60 communities in Osun State are ready for a public declaration to stop the practice.”
She said that as of December 2020, some communities are publicly rejecting the practice and about, “66 communities in three Local Government Areas, LGAs, of Ikole, Ado and Ekiti West in Ekiti State abandoned the practice, in Osun, we have three LGAs- Olaoluwa, Ifelodun and Ife- Central, and in Oyo State, we have 156 communities in four LGAs, Iseyin, Ogbomosho South, Ibarapa North, and Oyo West.”
Aderonke further adds that UNICEF is actually engaging with a lot of LGAs and currently in South West we are working with 24 LGAs, adding that, “We intend to scale up interventions to other LGAs this year. I am sure before 2030, we would be able to eliminate FGM in Nigeria because awareness is on the increase”.
Since the UNICEF/UNFPA programme was established in 2008, 13 countries have passed national legislation banning FGM. The programme has also provided access to prevention, protection, and treatment services. In 2018 alone, nearly 7 million people across 19 countries participated in education, discussions, and social mobilization promoting the elimination of FGM.
She pointed that, “FGM affects the woman psychologically. Many women who have undergone female genital mutilation go through post-traumatic stress disorder. Most of these women were cut when they could not fight for their rights as babies and as adults realized they were mutilated. The trauma sets in resulting to low self-esteem, post-traumatic stress disorder especially when the woman has to lose her husband to another woman because she was mutilated and could not satisfy her husband sexually.”
“Looking at it, where they actually cut would definitely have a scar when get healed, the woman would find it difficult to give birth, that part of her can tear again resulting to vaginal Vesicovaginal fistula, VVF, giving rise to not being able to control urine.
“Also, the woman feels incomplete as a woman. She is supposed to enjoy her sexual life just like the man, is enough to cause a lot of pain, trauma and most of the time, it has a detrimental impact on the health and life of the woman.”
Aderonke adds that FGM affects the sexual functioning of the woman, “Reduced sexual desire or libido because the clitoris that is cut is the only thing that God put in women that allows her enjoy sexual satisfaction and when it is cut off, there is reduced sexual desire and reduced lubrication during sexual intercourse as well. That is why some men would say, “my wife is not good in bed” and then they look for other options.”
On stigma, she said, “Any woman who was mutilated or cut is known to not be good in bed and no man would want to stay with such a woman- the rejection is there for the woman. This stigma leads to the right of the woman being taken away from her. As every man enjoys his sexuality the same way a woman should enjoy hers. Many women have lost their homes to other women because their husband no longer enjoys sexual satisfaction.”
According to the UN, “The Sustainable Development Goals contain a specific target calling for an end to FGM. When this practice is fully abandoned, positive effects will reverberate across societies as girls and women will reclaim their health, human rights, and vast potential.”
FGM reflects deep-rooted inequality between the sexes and constitutes an extreme form of discrimination against women and girls. The practice also violates their rights to health, security, and physical integrity, their right to be free from torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment, and their right to life when the procedure results in death.
To promote the abandonment of FGM, coordinated and systematic efforts are needed, and they must engage whole communities and focus on human rights and gender equality. These efforts should emphasize societal dialogue and the empowerment of communities to act collectively to end the practice. They must also address the sexual and reproductive health needs of women and girls who suffer from its consequences.
